Guilty Party Acer with its Acer Aspire One 110L
Charge Linking keyboard layout to selected user interface language
Aggravating Circumstances Overwriting configuration file on reboot with hardwired defaults for keyboard layout according to language settings
(Interim) Fix http://blog.laptopmag.com/acer-aspire-one-an-in-depth-look#comment-11841
Verdict Even my very seasoned Linux guru that helped me fix it (I failed miserably) was flabbergasted about this crude approach to internationalization. Sorry, but that's not the way to win over seasoned Windows users.